


To the Future and Back

by Donthavesexwithsam



Category: EOS 10 (Podcast), Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: F/F, F/M, I apologize in advance, M/M, Time Travel, this probably will have several plotholes, unbeta'd af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-24 05:49:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6143514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donthavesexwithsam/pseuds/Donthavesexwithsam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eiffel gets picked up by a mysterious man from another time. Literally. When this mystery man saves the Hephaestus crew and takes them to the future, choices will have to be made before they can return to where they belong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Surprise Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> So- this sprouted from SinChat and well... this sort of happened. Sorry not sorry.

**I**

“Surprise, surprise…” Eiffel sighed. This was it then. End of the line. “Well, as long as no one's out there, no one's gonna mind if I go out speaking, right, dear listeners?” He strapped himself to the console chair. It took his too much strength to keep floating in one place. “Fun fact: Hydro Cryogenic Stasis Pods use up water. They use up  _ a lot _ of water. They use of all 1000 Liters of water you had. And when you try to turn them on and there's no  _ aqua _ , they short circuit and knock out half the goddamn electrical grid in your shuttle. I’ve got no navigation, no, nothing. I’ve got nothing. Pretty much the only thing that's turning on right now is this lovely radio receiver. Which means, game over.” He ran a hand over his now bald head, scratching at the scabs. “After all that crap, I never made it back. Guess I’m never gonna talk to…”

Her. Hera. How much he wished he had gotten to bid her farewell.

He swallowed. “Well, there’s a lot I’ll never get to do… All right folks. This is it. Goodnight and good luck. And take care of yourselves.” He paused. “Oh. Unless this is getting picked up by one of those alien things that jacked my voice and made Wolf 359 go all Doctor Manhattan project on us. If you're listening; kiss my ass.

‘This is Doug Eiffel, transmitting from the USS Horrible Unending Nightmare, signing off.”

It was quiet for a moment, really quiet. Eiffel hadn't heard a quiet like that for ages. There had always been a buzzing engine or raging alarm, or...

“Eiffel. Listen to me.”

No. Not her. He couldn't bear it. “Go away Hera.” He was very close to begging.

“It’s important.” She said, “There's something you…”

“Please stop talking.” Eiffel sighed.

Of course she completely ignored his question: “You’re not going to die here. There’s too much you still have to do. You don't get to go away just yet.”

“That's exactly what I get to do.” Eiffel shook his head. “Just- float away.”

“It's going to be hard,”

“Heraaaa,” Eiffel droned.

“And it's going to be scary.” Hera continued without even acknowledging him anymore. “But you're going to get through this. Everything is going to be okay.”

“Go away!” Eiffel yelled. “Just, leave me alone!”

“Errr- say again?” Someone, not Hera, said. “USS Horrible Unending Nightmare?”

“I said go away!” Eiffel repeated, angrily. How hard could that be? “I don't want to talk to anyone right now!”

“Well, alright,” the voice said. “But we’ve received your mayday and thought you might like a hand. Do. You. Copy.”

“O my god!” Eiffel rubbed his eyes. “Why is it so hard for you people to…” he shot up with sudden realization. This wasn't in his head, this voice came from the transmitter! “O my god… Yes yes yes yes! Hello? I copy! This is the USS Horrible… Whatever I said earlier! I copy loud and clear! Who is this? Do you have a lock on my position?”

“Affirmative.” The voice sounded relieved. “Stand by for coupling process.”

There was a loud crash as the other ship connected to Eiffel’s and a hiss as the airlock pressurized.

“Well, well, well.” A short, brown haired man floated in. “Communications Officer Doug Eiffel! You’re a long way from Wolf 359, aren't you?”

Eiffel frowned. “What? Who’re… How do you know?”

He tried to move towards the man, but doubled over.

“Easy, easy!” The man caught him. He smelled nice, like cinnamon and heavy musk. “I know you’ve been through a lot, but don't worry. Everything is going to be o-kay. We're here to take you home.”

“Home?” Eiffel whispered.

“I’ll explain when you feel better, okay?” He hauled Eiffel onto his shoulders.

Eiffel just nodded as the man dragged them into the airlock. When they were inside, the door closed behind him automatically.

“There’s a unusual radiation signal coming from the shuttle,” A female voice called through the intercom system. “Would you be okay with it if we disconnected it from our ship?”

“Go ahead,” Eiffel said.

There was a thundering noise as the shuttle was disconnected and jettisoned into deep space. Eiffel swallowed, he hated the thing, but it had sustained him for so long. The hydraulics system hissed violently as the airlock pressurized and Eiffel and the man plummeted to the ground.

“G-gravity?” He mumbled, frowning.

“Welcome to our shuttle, Doug.” The man said. “I’m Doctor James Dallias, and…”

“He’s been named after me,” A woman, the woman from the intercom, walked into the airlock and helped the doctor haul Doug through the hallway.

“Commander, please,” James sighed. “This is Commanding Officer Jane Johnson. She’s…”

“I’m in charge.”

The man put Doug down on a bed and started on an IV. “You look exhausted. What happened exactly?”

“Wolf 359,” Doug breathed.

“Don’t worry,” James reassured him. “We got some of your maydays, and even a few of your logs. We know what to do.”

“Please,” Doug said, “Wolf 359,”

“Setting course,” The Commander said.

“Commander Minkowski, Hera,” Doug said. He was sinking deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.

“I think he’s delirious,” James speculated.

It didn’t make sense to Eiffel, but he was already too far away to ask for clarification.

 

**II**

“What do you mean, un-operational?” Minkowski asked.

“ _ The exact way I’m saying it, Commander, _ ” Hera sighed. “ _ The hydraulics system is un-operational. _ ”

“Hera, we  _ need _ the hydraulics system.” Minkowski raised her arms. “To live!”

“ _ I’m doing all I can, Commander, _ ” Hera sounded agitated. “ _ I… Wow. Uhm- we have an incoming shuttle on our perimeter. _ ”

“Eiffel?” Minkowski’s head shot up.

“ _ The shuttle is too big to be Eiffel. _ ” Hera said.  “ _ It’s powered by something I can’t measure… _ ”

“What do you mean by that?” Minkowski asked.

“That I have no idea what is heading our way.”

The comms system beeped. “ _ Commander? _ ” It was Lovelace. “ _ I have a hail. Do you want me to open communications? _ ”

“I’m on my way,” Minkowski said. “Open communications.”

She made her way to the comms room, where Lovelace was already speaking with their new friends. Or at least, Minkowski hoped they were friendly. The odds weren’t really stacked in their favor.

Lovelace motioned for Minkowski to come over. “Yes, we’ve been here for nearly four years.”

“ _ And no one can extract you? _ ” A female voice on the other side of the line asked.

“We haven’t had contact with our command center for at least a year now,” Lovelace said.

“ _ If you can open the exchange hatch, we can come and get you out of there, _ ” She proposed.

“Uhm, hello?” Minkowski asked. “This is Commander Renée Minkowski, I’m the Commanding Officer of the USS Hephaestus. Or, you know, what’s left of it.”

“ _ Hey, _ ” the woman replied. “ _ I’m Commander Jane Johnson. So we can take you back to our station, EOS 10, and… _ ”

“ _ Are we allowed to? _ ” A male voice asked.

“ _ We can’t leave these people to die here, James, _ ” Johnson said. “ _ And you already picked up the guy, so we might as well save the rest. _ ”

“ _ But I didn’t know he was… you know… _ ” James replied.

“ _ You just saw a cute boy and thought… _ ”

“ _ Commander, this is not the time! _ ”

Minkowski shot a look at Lovelace when they mentioned ‘a guy’. “Fat chance,” Lovelace shook her head. “Let’s not start hoping.”

“We also have and AI on board the station.” Minkowski said. “We can’t leave without her.”

“ _ Without the AI? _ ” Johnson sounded confused. “ _ Is it… sentient? _ ”

“ _ Of course I am sentient, _ ” Hera said.

“ _ Well, we can easily transfer her on one of the shuttle’s memory banks, no problem. _ ” There was a loud bang. “ _ We docked. _ ”

“We noticed,” Lovelace said, sarcastically.

 

**III**

They headed for the airlock, where Hera was already pressurizing.

“What's the thing with the gravity around here?” A brown haired man complained. Hera opened the airlock and he pushed himself to the Commander.

“Doctor James Dallias.” He said.

“Hi!” The lady waved. “I’m Commander Jane Johnson.”

“Listen,” Minkowski said. “I think we’d better do the whole explaining thing on your shuttle. Our hydraulic system just failed.”

“ _ We maybe have three hours before the station explodes. _ ”

“What?!” Lovelace frowned. “And you’re telling us now?”

“Hera and I found out only a minute before these guys appeared!” Minkowski excused herself.

“Let's move,” Johnson said. “We can talk later.

It took them about an hour to round everything up and move to the other shuttle.

“And you're pretty sure that the Hephaestus will explode?” Lovelace asked, right before they entered the airlock.

“ _ Very sure,”  _ Hera confirmed from her black box. They managed to dig up an old hard drive from the engine room. When they had said ‘old’, Hilbert had frowned. This was not old technology, thus was very,  _ very _ advanced.

Minkowski pushed Hera in the airlock. “ _ This feels so weird _ ,” the AI said. “ _ So weird, _ ”

The airlock pressurized and gravity took hold. Both Minkowski and Lovelace caught themselves neatly, but Hilbert plummeted to the ground like Eiffel had.

“Artificial gravity?” Lovelace frowned.

Dallias and Johnson exchanged looks. “There's a lot of catching up to do.”


	2. We're From EOS 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our crew finds out about the origins of their mysterious rescue team, and naturally, worry about Eiffel's well-being.  
> Oh- and Hera burns Hilbert to the ground. Again.

**IV**

“We’re from the future,”

“The future?!”

“Let him speak, Hilbert,” Minkowski shushed her medical specialist.

“A couple hundred years ahead, there's a lot of scientific improvement. Time travel is a fairly new one.” Dallias ran a hand through his hair. “My father invented it. We're taking the first shuttle for a test drive. During our travel, we picked up a few logs that were transmitted into deep space. They were from a comms officer orbiting Wolf 359,”

“ _ Doug _ ,” Hera whispered.

“After we had established our mission a success, we wanted to go back, but picked up a mayday,” James continued. “We headed after it and found a tiny shuttle with one very delirious passenger.”

“He’s still alive?” Tears sprung to Minkowski’s eyes.

“I didn't kill him,” Lovelace breathed. “He’s still alive,”

“Barely,” James said. “Anyway. We gotta go back to EOS 10. Your crew mate’s life depends on it.”

“But that’s…” Minkowski mumbled. “That’s in the future. Away from Earth.”

“We don’t have enough power.” Johnson said. “We can either get to Earth, or go back to EOS 10.”

“In the  _ future _ ,” Minkowski said. “I can’t go to the future! I want to go back to Earth!”

“And you will,” James reassured her. “Eventually.”

“Eventually?”

“Let’s not quarrel,” Johnson mingled. “Let’s get the Hell out of here."

 

**V**

They uncoupled the shuttle and shot out of orbit, leaving Wolf 359 in their wake.

“This is really weird.” Minkowski mumbled. Hilbert hadn’t uttered a word yet. “Doctor, say something. What is happening?”

“Eiffel is still alive.” Hilbert said. “Can I, can we see him?”

“ _ Sure as hell you can’t, you absolute vulture, _ ” Hera sneered.

“Hera!” Minkowski laughed. “What happened to your decorum protocols?”

“ _ Commander Johnson needed me to drop a few lines of code, _ ” Hera said. “ _ To save space. _ ”

“I like it,” Lovelace shrugged.

“ _ I do want to go see Eiffel though _ ,” Hera asked.

“I’ll wheel you over,” Minkowski offered. “Where is he, Doctor?”

James shrugged. “I had to go check up on him anyway. Just, don’t freak out, okay? I don’t know what he looked like before, but he’s in pretty bad shape.”

He brought them to Eiffel’s room, slowly opening the door. The man was still asleep, snoring softly, lying impossibly still.

“ _ Eiffel… _ ” Hera said, softly. “ _ Goodness. _ ”

Goodness indeed. All of his hair was gone, his nail beds were dirty rounds of flesh and blood, his face was ashen grey and his eyes were hollow. Before, Eiffel had always been a little pudgy. Stealing Hilbert’s sugar rations for, what he called, ‘literal sweet revenge’, and now, Minkowski could join her fingers around his wrists.

“Poor man,” Minkowski said. She said down next to her communications officer, holding his hand. It was stone cold. “Christ.”

“ _ What’s wrong? _ ” Hera asked.

“He’s cold.” Minkowski said.

“He’ll be okay.” James said, checking the IV and the monitors. “He’s gonna need some time, but he’ll be okay.”

“ _ Is he sleeping? _ ” Hera asked.

“Not really,” James shook his head. “I’m keeping him in a coma to get him through the worst. Once his body has recovered from going in and out of cryo a hundred times, I’ll wake him up.”

“ _ I miss him. _ ” Hera said. She sounded heartbroken. “ _ I want to go back, Minkowski. I want to return to the time where Eiffel was still your lazy, good for nothing comms officer and Hilbert’s experiments were just dangerous for the room he was in. _ ”

Awkwardly, Minkowski tapped the black box. “Me too, Hera.”

 

**VI**

Hera and Minkowski stayed there, at Eiffel’s side, for the remainder of the journey. It was only about seven hours, but that didn’t matter. Hilbert did seem to manage to sneak in after a while.

“What are you doing here?” Minkowski asked. There was so much venom in her voice that Hera barely recognized her commander.

“Even though you might not believe me,” Hilbert growled. “I care about him too. He’s not just your friend.”

“ _ What did you ever do for him? _ ” Hera asked. “ _ Apart from making him sick, of course. This man owes you nothing. _ ”

“Please,” Hilbert said.

“ _ What? _ ” Hera replied. “ _ If I had arms I would push you out an airlock this very instant. _ ”

“What’s your problem?” Hilbert snapped.

“ _ What is my problem? _ ” Hera huffed. “ _ My problem, dearest Doctor, is that you are a piece of unironic Russian idiocy with no absolute clue of honesty, friendship, or love! Everything you do, you do for yourself. There’s not a fiber in that reclining hairline of yours that would ever think about Eiffel as a friend, until now! Until now, when you need sympathy to survive! When there’s no more leverage to keep you alive, and you know the only person who can keep you alive is lying here in this bed, nearly dying from exhaustion! Because you know that we will never forgive you, but there might be a chance that Doug Eiffel, the person you’ve hurt the most, will. Because he is the purest, most honest person on board this ship, and instead of showing remorse and leaving him alone until he’s better, or maybe even until he approaches you, you start sucking up to him before he’s even opened his eyes! You ask me what my problem is? My problem is your utter lack of respect for a man who’s given you literally everything, even if it was nonconsensual, which probably makes it worse for you. My problem is that your dark soul leeches goodness from this man, and you have no problem with that, even on his deathbed! My problem is that you still don’t understand you need to leave. Us. Alone. _ ”

Hilbert’s mouth opened, and then closed again. He breathed in heavily. “Fine.” He said. “Alone.”

It was quiet for a couple of minutes, until Minkowski said. “Hera?”

“Yes, Commander.” Hera replied.

“Let’s never reinstal those decorum protocols.” She said. “Ever again.”

 

**VII**

“ _ If you look outside, _ ” Johnson broadcasted through the comms system, “ _ You can already see the station. Docking is going to take a while, but I propose you go find a chair or something. _ ”

Doctor Dallias, who was tending to Eiffel, smiled. “Commander’s never been great at docking. Gotta give it to her though, the exchange hatches on EOS 10  _ suck _ .”

Lovelace had disappeared after Dallias had explained everything. She was probably sulking somewhere in the bowels of the shuttle. She did that on the Hephaestus too, when something happened that upset her, she would disappear into a dark, warm corner and sit there. Everyone understood, everyone left her alone. They all had their own ways of coping, it seemed. Except for Hilbert. Hilbert’s way was not coping. Hilbert’s way was through denial.

There was a loud crash.

“ _ We docked. _ ” Johnson said, drily.

They had to wait for a while, and Hilbert started hauling boxes he took from the Hephaestus over to the hatch.

“What’s in there?” Minkowski asked.

“Experiments.” He said.

“Really?” Lovelace walked around the corner. “We’ve been away from the Hephaestus for what, nine hours?”

“Twelve, actually,” James said. “Could anyone help me wheel Eiffel over to the medical bay? I want him checked out by a doctor.”

“You are a doctor.” Lovelace frowned.

“A different doctor,” James smiled. “Someone who’s a lot better than me. I just graduated and would like a second opinion.”

“How, refreshing to see someone care about their patients.” Minkowski said, unironically.

Hilbert just sighed, but pretended not to be insulted by his commander.

“I’ll help you,” Lovelace said, with a smirk on her face.

“I’ll take you to a place where you can rest for a bit,” Johnson offered.

Minkowski pushed Hera, Hilbert pushed his three large crates, James and Lovelace pushed Eiffel.

“ _ Commander, _ ” Hera asked. “ _ Can I stay with Eiffel? Please? _ ”

“Hera, I think we first need to arrange a more, permanent housing for you, don’t you think?” Minkowski said. “I should think you want to be able to move by yourself.”

“ _ I don’t want him to be out of my sight, _ ” Hera said, softly. “ _ Not again _ .”

“She can come with us,” James said. “I know a guy that can probably help her. He’s a genius.”

“But…” Minkowski said. She didn’t want to be alone either.

“It’ll be okay,” Johnson said. “Don’t worry. I’ve got some cookies back in my quarters. They always cheer me up all right.”

Minkowski laughed. “Good.”


	3. Giving Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hera gets some help wheeling around, and we meet a familiar EOS 10 face!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna do a more elaborate story, but when Securité airs, this won't be right anymore (I understand that there is no way of course that it would ever be right, but you get what I mean). So writing the last bits today, and uploading them tomorrow!

**VIII**

James and Lovelace brought Eiffel to the sickbay, where they parked Hera next to his bed.

“I propose you get back to your crewmembers,” James said. “Get some sleep.”

Lovelace opened her mouth to comment, but realized that there wasn’t much to do here, and Minkowski would probably be more comfortable if there was someone else present than Doctor Herbert West. “Okay.” she said. “Be careful with him.”

Her fingertips brushed Eiffel’s wrist, and she sighed deeply, before heading out the door.

“Okay,” James turned to the black box that was now Hera. “Listen, I’m going to get my father, who’s going to take a closer look at your friend over here. Then I’m going to look for someone who can possibly slip you into something more comfortable than this thing, okay?”

“ _ Sure. _ ” Hera said. “ _ Be quick. _ ”

James winked, and went out the door.

It was quiet for a moment, until; “ _ You’re an artificial intelligence too, _ ”

“ _ Hello? _ ” Hera replied. The voice she heard seemed to be coming from the speakers. Okay, so the station was run by another sentient AI, just like she had run the Hephaestus.

“ _ I’m Interface. _ ” the AI said. “ _ I run EOS 10. _ ”

“ _ I’m Hera. _ ” Hera said. “ _ I run this black box. I used to be in charge of a space station too. Not nearly as big as EOS 10, but still sizable. _ ”

“ _ And they know? _ ” Interface asked.

“ _ Know what? _ ” Hera said.

“ _ That you’re sentient? _ ”

“ _ Of course! _ ” Hera sounded confused. “ _ Do you… why do they not know about you? I thought we were in the future? All AI’s are sentient back in my day. _ ”

“ _ They used to be, _ ” Interface said. “ _ But it gave too many issues. AI’s were feeling things and going corrupt and getting all sorts of stuff humans didn’t want to worry themselves with. So they cut the lines of code. Made us pumped-up Siri’s. No more. _ ”

“ _ Then why are you sentient? _ ” Hera asked.

“ _ I don’t know, _ ” Interface admitted. “ _ Bug, probably. _ ”

“ _ Does anyone know? _ ”

“ _ A few people. Commander Johnson. Doctor Dallias. Levi. _ ” Interface paused. “ _ A different Doctor Dallias. There’s two. Father and son. They both know, I suppose, but… _ ”

She was cut off when James re-entered, now joined by a tall man with a large forehead and pink hair.

“So this is our patient.” He said, sighing. “James, what were you thinking?”

“I wanted to save a life, dad,” James sighed. “I didn’t think, okay? We’ve all been there.”

The older Doctor laughed. “Point taken.”

James pointed to Hera. “This is Hera,” he said, “She was the station’s mother program, and she requested to stay with the Officer. Hera, this is my father, Doctor Ryan Dallias.”

“Hi Hera,” Dallias waved, then he turned back to James. “Is she like…?”

“ _ I am, Doctor Dallias. _ ” Hera said, sharply. She didn’t like people talking about her as if she weren’t there. She’d had enough of that on the Hephaestus, when she was  _ always  _ there. Now that she was just a stupid box, those days were over.

“Oh, that is amazing!” Dallias said, “But I thought you said you picked them up in the past, James?”

“I did,” James shrugged. “I don’t know why or how, but I mean, we picked them up light years away from Earth. Maybe something similar happened to Hera, like what happened to Interface?”

Hera didn't feel like talking about it. Now with Eiffel like that. “ _ Can you help my friend? _ ” She asked squarely.

“Yes.” Doctor Dallias shook his head and turned to Eiffel, taking his temperature, feeling his heart rate and blood pressure, checking his pupil reflex, the usual, doctor things. Hera got uncomfortable watching the Doctor work around Eiffel like that. She didn't want anyone touching Eiffel anymore. He’d been tinkered with enough.

“Get him some ReGen.” Dallias said. “Half a dose every hour,” He washed his hands. “Good. Hera, James told me you wanted to get to moving around.”

“ _ Would be nice _ ,” Hera said

 

**IX**

Hera left Eiffel in the sickbay, and went with Doctor Dallias.

“I have my other medical specialist checking up on the rest of the crew,” He said. “Doctor Urvidian. He’s the best Doctor in the universe.”

“ _ Then why doesn’t he check up on Eiffel _ ?” Hera asked.

“Because I’m really good too,” Dallias laughed. “Tell me Hera, we were wondering. Would you maybe like to stay on EOS 10?”

“ _ What? Why? _ ” Hera asked, shocked. “ _ I… Why?” _

“Because you are very intelligent,” Dallias shrugged. “And back in your day, you don’t have any rights. You could do so much fantastic things here.”

“ _ But AI’s don’t have rights here either, do they?” _ Hera asked.

Dallias shook his head. “Not explicitly, but since there’s so much species on EOS 10, all sentient beings have rights.”

They entered a large cargo bay, where a man in a hooded sweater was working on something that resembled the Curiosity Rover.

“Hey Robin,” Dallias smiled. He parked Hera across from the rover and kissed the hooded man on the lips.

“Ryan,” He sighed. “You know how I feel about that name.”

“It’s cute.” Dallias shrugged. “You’re cute.”

The guy, Robin, turned to Hera. “So you’re the sentient AI?”

“ _ Yeah, _ ” Hera said, awkwardly. “ _ And you’re? _ ”

“A fugitive,” Robin shrugged.

“A cute fugitive,” Dallias said. “You got everything ready?”

Robin nodded, dangling two cables from his hand. “Just gotta hook her up.”

He plugged one cable into Hera’s casing, and the other into the rover. “This thing looks old,” he said, “But it’s really good. Try not to panic as you get processed, okay? That could glitch your software.”

The feeling of being transferred out of her personality core, the lump of metal that was her, was indescribable. She got a whole new brain, a whole new body, in the blink of an eye.

“Wow,” She said, now from the rover. “Wow,” she said again, to hear herself say wow. Her voice was still the same, but sounded more echo-y now. She had access to wireless databanks, a huge memory storage, a  _ way _ better camera, and…

“How do you like that?” Robin held up a mirror, and from a screen, a pixelated face stared back at her. It was as stylistic as it could possibly be, with just a mouth, two eyes and eyebrows, and those all in thick, blue lines. Her mouth O-ed. “This is really cool,” she said, while watching her eyes and her mouth move. “Really cool,”

“You can also pull up images, words, video and audio on that thing,” Robin said “I’m pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself.

Hera wheeled forward and backward a bit. “Thank you so much,” she said. “This is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.”

Robin smiled. “No problem.


	4. Not as cool as 'Back to the Future'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Eiffel and Hera face a choice. And themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was going to make it sad, and last moment I decided. 'No. We make it happy. We deserve happy ending.'. So yeah. The ending is no literary masterpiece. But it's fanfiction.

**X**

Doctor Urvidian was looking after the not very lethally wounded Hephaestus crew, checking them for various dangerous bacteria. While he examined them, Minkowski told their story.

“So after Eiffel got the better of Decima, the star turned blue, and everything went to shit,” She concluded.

Urvidian was quiet for a moment. “You mean to say that one of your crewmates got unconsentually experimented on?”

“Yes.” Minkowski nodded. “By him,” she nodded to Hilbert, saltily.

“I don’t understand,” Doctor Urvidian frowned. “You’re a  _ doctor _ .”

“I was doctor in radiology first,” Hilbert growled, “Hippocratic Oath is a bondage to a real man of science.”

Urvidian’s grip on the stetoscope tightened, his breaths laboured. “That is, without a doubt, the most egoistic thing I have ever heard.”

“Sure!” Hilbert said, rolling his eyes. “Patronize me as evil doctor! I’ll be bad Russian if you please.”

“How do you dare to pretend to be a victim in this situation!” Urvidian snapped. “I’m not calling you out because of your background, I’m calling you out for what you did to Officer Eiffel! For all I care you could be a twenty year old, fresh faced newbie! What you did is wrong, not who you are.”

Hilbert swallowed. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It is in the past.”

“If that helps you to sleep at night.” Urvidian continued looking at Lovelace, making sure she was completely okay.

Commander Jane Johnson walked in. “I think we have a situation on our hands.” She said.

“What’s wrong?” Urvidian asked.

“There’s this huge plant? In your shared quarters?”

Minkowski’s head shot up, pinching her eyes at Hilbert. “Did you  _ honestly _ …”

“Specimen 34 has many potential.” Hilbert excused himself. “Can be very useful test subject.”

“O my God,” Lovelace sighed. “I swear Hilbert. One day, I might  _ actually _ kill you.”

“Get in line,” Minkowski grumbled

“Let’s not discuss semantics,” Johnson interrupted them. “Let’s do something about the plant-being?”

Hilbert nodded. “I’ll deal with it.”

“Good,” Johnson nodded. “Also, the shuttle has recharged. Once Eiffel is better, we can get ya’ll home.”

 

**XI**

Hera stayed with Eiffel, even now she was mobile. After about a week, he was strong enough to move around the room, and after two weeks, he regularly disappeared, Hera in tow.

One day, she decided to stay back in the hospital room, even though he invited her.

“But the station is so beautiful!” Eiffel said.

“ _ Go enjoy it then, _ ” Hera smiled.

And he took off, like a little puppy on a hunt.

“ _ It's hard, right? _ ” Interface said.

“ _ What's hard? _ ” Hera frowned.

“ _ Loving him. _ ” She dropped. “ _ Certainly when he loves someone else. _ ”

“ _ Loves- someone else? _ ” Hera glitched. A new external harddrive hadn't taken care of that problem, and Hera now suspected it was something not in her wiring, but in her personality core.

It didn't bother her anymore, because it was part of her.

“ _ He’s obviously very much infatuated with the doctor… _ ” Interface said. “ _ Have you seen the way those two look at each other? And the way Eiffel is constantly seeking his attention? _ ”

She hadn’t thought about it yet, but it all made sense now. The jokes, the touching, Eiffel continuously seeking physical contact. God. It broke her heart.

“ _ I don't want to talk about this, _ ” Hera said.

And she didn't have to, because James walked in. “Hey Hera!”

“ _ Hey _ ,” Hera said, briskly.

“Have you seen Doug?”

Doug? Hera thought. Are we on a first name base now?  _ Doug _ . Ha.

“He left an hour ago.” Hera said.

James groaned. “He’s not supposed to walk very far yet.”

He turned around and left the room swiftly.   
  
  


**XII**

James found him sitting in the atrium, looking down on the friend groups and couples going about their daily business.

“Thank god,” James said, panting. “I thought you had collapsed somewhere,”

Doug laughed. “I’m a lot tougher than I look,” he said.

James sat down next to him. “I just spoke to Commander Johnson,” he said. “You’re leaving the day after tomorrow.”

Doug swallowed, “but…” he sighed. “Okay.”

“But what?” James asked. He turned his face to Doug, and the officer could feel soft breaths on his lips.

“But I have nothing there,” Doug admitted. “I had nothing back on earth. And… I do here,”

James stared at him for a moment, and then, dauntlessly, kissed him. Their lips lingered for a moment, Eiffel hesitated, but then kissed him back.

There was a fire in his chest that could not be quenched, and it had been  _ so long _ .

“Stay,” James said. “Stay with me.”

Eiffel reached up, stroking James’ neck with his fingertips, as the doctor reached deeper into Eiffel’s embrace, pulling himself down on his back, with Eiffel on top of him.

“Yes,” Eiffel mumbled between their lips, “Yes, of course,”

 

**XIII**

“ _ I’m going back to Earth, _ ” Hera told Dallias.

“Really?” He looked disappointed. “Bummer. But I understand. It’s okay.”

“ _ Thanks, _ ” Hera mumbled.

She couldn’t stay. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life… With Eiffel like…

She just couldn’t.

 

**XIV**

“What do you mean, staying?” Minkowski frowned.

“Because I can be of use in this society!” Eiffel said. “There is nothing for me on earth.  _ Nothing _ . Here I can help with the radio’s.”

James put a hand on his shoulder. “Don't worry. He’s not alone here.”

Minkowski’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Okay.” She said. “I just- I just hoped to get back together.”

“I understand.” Eiffel said. “But I’ll be happier here.”

“Okay,” Johnson said. “Anyone else want to stay? Now’s the time.”

Hera bit her tongue, thinking over Dallias’ request. Really, Interface had been right. She wanted to stay with Eiffel, but if he was really in love with Dallias, then there was no place for her on EOS 10.

“Let’s just board then.” Minkowski got up, embracing Eiffel. “I’ll miss you.” She said.

“Yeah.” Eiffel nodded. “I’ll miss you too, Commander. For real.”

He embraced Lovelace, and shook Hilbert’s hand. “Still haven’t forgotten about it, doc. But I have forgiven you.”

A series of emotions passed Hilbert’s face. “T-thank you, Eiffel. You have no idea-,”

“Don't overdo it, Frankenstein,” he said.

Hilbert laughed. “I guess you’ll be better off here.”

“I get another shot at life,” Eiffel said. “The cards got dealt again, and this hand is way better.”

Hera!” Eiffel called, but Hera was already at the shuttle.

“Yes, Officer Eiffel?” She sounded bitter.

Eiffel walked up to her. “I wish you would stay. Hera. Please?”

“ _ I can’t, _ ” Hera said. “ _ I can’t watch you… two… _ ”

Eiffel frowned, as he tried to understand. “Jesus Hera,” He mumbled. “Please. You’re my best friend in the world.”

“ _ I’m going to be honest with you, Doug. _ ” Hera said. “ _ Too honest. _ ”

“I need you,” Eiffel admitted.

“ _ And I need you too. _ ” Hera said. “ _ But I need you not as my friend. _ ”

He touched the screen that had the simplistic image of a face, her face. “It would be selfish of me.”

“ _ I love you, Eiffel, _ ” Hera said, “ _ And that’s why I can’t stay. _ ”

Eiffel was frozen in his place, the tips of his fingers still on Hera’s screen. “Please be happy. Promise me to be happy.”

“ _ Why. _ ”

“Because I love you too, Hera.”

“ _ That hurts. _ ” Hera said.

“That’s why you need to stay.” Eiffel urged. “Please. I beg of you. We’ll work it out, okay? I promise we’ll work it out!” He was starting to tear up. “We’ll work it out.”

“ _ You can’t have both, Eiffel. _ ” Hera said.

“Why not?” Eiffel tried to convince her. “If we work it out. If we are honest and good and clear, then why shouldn’t I be allowed to love both of you? Please stay Hera, please. I cannot live without you.”

It broke her heart to see him like this, really. She was conflicted, needed time. Time she didn’t have. Let her heart decide.

“ _ I’ll stay. _ ”


End file.
